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The species to be described belong to ten families, and will be given in the following order: Bignoniaceae, Polemoniaceae, Leguminosae, Compositae, Smilaceae, Fumariaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Vitaceae, Sapindaceae, Passifloraceae. BIGNONIACEAE. This family contains many tendril-bearers, some twiners, and some root-climbers. The tendrils always consist of modified leaves.
In Mutisia clematis, the tendril, in shape and colour, closely resembles the petiole of one of the ordinary leaves, together with the midribs of the leaflets, but vestiges of the laminae are still occasionally retained. In four genera of the Fumariaceae we can follow the whole process of transformation.
The Fumariaceae include closely allied genera which are leaf-climbers and tendril-bearers. Lastly, a species of Bignonia is at the same time both a leaf-climber and a tendril-bearer; and other closely allied species are twiners. Tendrils of another kind consist of modified flower-peduncles. In this case we likewise have many interesting transitional states.
The movement begins whilst the tendril is young, and is at first slow. The mature tendrils of Bignonia littoralis move much slower than the internodes. In most Bignonias, Eccremocarpus Mutisia, and the Fumariaceae, the internodes, petioles and tendrils all move harmoniously together.
POLEMONIACEAE Cobaea scandens much branched and hooked tendrils, their manner of action LEGUMINOSAE COMPOSITAE SMILACEAE Smilax aspera, its inefficient tendrils FUMARIACEAE Corydalis claviculata, its state intermediate between that of a leaf-climber and a tendril-bearer. By tendrils I mean filamentary organs, sensitive to contact and used exclusively for climbing.
FUMARIACEAE. Fumaria officinalis. It could not have been anticipated that so lowly a plant as this Fumaria should have been a climber. It climbs by the aid of the main and lateral petioles of its compound leaves; and even the much-flattened terminal portion of the petiole can seize a support. I have seen a substance as soft as a withered blade of grass caught.
The plant might have been left, one would have thought, to climb by the aid of its spines alone, like our brambles. As, however, it belongs to a genus, some of the species of which are furnished with much longer tendrils, we may suspect that it possesses these organs solely from being descended from progenitors more highly organized in this respect. FUMARIACEAE. Corydalis claviculata.
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